Once again I’ve had a chance to sit down and talk picture books with my friend and colleague John Borthwick, Director of The Centre for Lifelong Learning at Knox College. I really love that John makes space on his show for these kinds of conversations, and I always try to make sure that I have something to say that goes beyond simply promoting my own books.
Admittedly, I was talking about Who Needs the Dark and The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t on this episode. But telling the stories behind the stories led us to think more deeply about different kinds of darkness, and how its physical and metaphysical forms are both beneficial to us in different ways.
John asked me why I think it is so important to talk with children about darkness. I replied that it is because how we handle our fear of the dark has consequences (environmental, ecological, spiritual). I wrote more about this in the September issue of my newsletter, Margin Notes, but John and I explore the matter a bit in this conversation too.
If it’s dark where you are now, why not make a cup of something warm, curl up and listen.
Laura Alary 